HIBAPRESS – A. Mohyawi
The project to rehabilitate Jibran Khalil Jibran Street in the city of El Jadida has once again come to the forefront of local debate, after it suffered significant delays in completion, despite the huge financial envelope allocated to it, which amounted to 140 million dirhams, which sparked a wave of widespread dissatisfaction among the residents and local actors.
According to consistent data, the works, which were expected to be completed during last summer, witnessed unjustified delays, accompanied by repeated changes in the contract, which turned the project from an anticipated development workshop into a file that raises major questions about governance and the follow-up of public projects. This situation prompted the governor of El Jadida province, Saleh Daha, to intervene directly, where he expressed his intense anger, after detecting technical and administrative imbalances described as significant. In this context, official reports were submitted to the Ministry of Interior documenting the manifestations of the stumble and poor implementation. In an attempt to remedy the situation, local officials, headed by the president of the Casablanca-Settat region, Abdelatif Maazouz, announced the formation of a special committee to investigate the reasons for this stumble, to ascertain the extent of respect for contractual obligations, and to determine the responsibilities associated with delaying the delivery of the project. For their part, the citizens of El Jadida expressed their anger and dissatisfaction with the condition of the street, pointing to the absence of infrastructure, the lack of public lighting, and the absence of road signs, which turned one of the vital streets in the city into a space that lacks the simplest conditions of safety and urban attractiveness. The local actors, in turn, stressed the need to establish a real and independent audit committee, whose tasks are not limited to diagnosing the causes of the delay, but extend to investigating financial and technical imbalances, and ensuring respect for public money, the principles of transparency and linking responsibility to accountability. Local affairs followers confirm that this file has become a real test of the seriousness of managing major projects at the regional level, especially in light of the growing demands of the residents to improve the infrastructure, and to avoid repeating what they described as "administrative scandals" for which the city and its residents pay the high price.
